January-
A sharp-shinned hawk was seen several times over the month of
January.

February-
Macoun Marsh was featured at the “Teaching
Choices- Tomorrow’s Classroom 2014 “ Symposium at the University of
Ottawa.On February 3 there was a
meeting at Ottawa City Hall to look at how Let’s
Talk Science can work with local programs like the Macoun Marsh project to
promote “backyard” biology.A saw-whet
owl was seen near the feeders on February 1.

March-
A sharp-shinned hawk continues to hunt at the marsh.

April-
April saw the first sighting ever of the rare American bittern at Macoun
Marsh.On Easter day neighbours
witnessed it eating a gartersnake! A snowy owl was sighted being chased off by
crows.

May-
The Macoun Marsh sub-committee under the Beechwood Cemetery
Foundation began.Twenty nine species
of bird were seen on May 10!Most of
these were unusual migrants.On May 21 forty
grade 2/3 students from Lady Evelyn Alternative School enjoyed a fantastic tour
by the St-Laurent Academy grade 6 students.

June-
June 7th was our first community marsh tour. Most people came from Dunbarton Court.In late June VIPs Swetha (India) and
Christian (Germany) were in Canada as part of the Global Youth Biodiversity
Network. They were involved with the Montreal Working Group on the Review of
the Implementation of the Convention on Biodiversity.They had a private tour of our special marsh!

July-
St. Lawrence River Institute of
Environmental Sciences came out to do bat research at Macoun Marsh. Some
students from St-Laurent Academy joined the group with a pizza and DQ picnic.
Many night creatures were seen including two little brown bats, one hoary bat,
four baby raccoons and a green heron.

August-
St-Laurent Academy science teacher Mike Leveille began work on a detailed Macoun Marsh Summer Diorama for St-Laurent
Academy School.On August 19th
we find the 1400th species recorded- the spotted tussock moth!

September-
Local Cub Scouts and Rockcliffe Park Public School visit the
marsh.

October-
The NAAEE International Environmental Conference tour at
Macoun Marsh was on October 8.Ten
delegates came out representing schools and museums from NWT, Alberta,
California, New York, Chicago, and Florida. Rain held off for most of the
event. Aquatic life, salamanders, migrant birds, and asters dominated the
tour.

The ANNUAL BIODIVERSITY MENTORSHIP
PROGRAM with youth from local Public, Catholic, and Private schools met on
October 18.There was a student-led
Macoun Marsh tour. The students received two messages from youth delegates at a
UN Biodiversity gathering in the Republic of Korea.

November-
Black-capped chickadees began feeding from local visitors.

December-
Unusually warm weather delay natural cycles with the absence of snow cover and
the activity of invertebrates under the soil.Some migrants are staying longer this winter such as the white-throated
sparrow.On December 12 St-Laurent
Academy students witnessed a juvenile sharp-shinned
hawk hunting a
junco.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Residents of Rawalpindi district in northern Pakistan are
suffering from severe energy crisis due to the dip in mercury. According to the
locals, they are compelled to stop their business due to the low gas pressure
and the price of coal and firewood are also increasing making their life even
more miserable. Local government is not doing much to solve the problem.

A flock of Black Necked cranes were spotted for the first
time in the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) in Trashigang district, eastern
Bhutan last week. However, the species have been appearing in several parts of Lhuentse
districts in the previous years too. Such an unusual migration of these species
according to wildlife conservationists could be the result of increasing global
temperature and climate change.

Numbers of glaciers in Tibetan Plateau, southwestern
China are retreating with the warming of temperature. As per the new and
comprehensive inventory by Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering
Research Institute, the glaciers in the central upper reach of Brahmaputra
River are shrinking at a fastest rate. Those glaciers are source of water to
China as well as several parts of India.

Timber smugglers are getting easy access to the timbers
of Ajas forest range in Srinagar, Kashmir in absence of proper monitoring and
supervision. Those timbers are meant for the public distribution but due to
nexus between employees of Forest Department and smugglers, those timbers are
being smuggled illegally. According to the forest protection force, they have
recovered 60 logs from a house amounting to 800 square feet of timber